


Fur and Feathers

by dragonfire1603



Category: Critical Role (Web Series) RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Developing Relationship, Dæmon's are perfect matchmakers, F/M, You can't change my mind
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-14
Updated: 2020-01-14
Packaged: 2021-03-12 12:35:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22255150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonfire1603/pseuds/dragonfire1603
Summary: “You like her a lot, don’t you?” Lieci asks late one evening. Matt looks up at his companion, stunned for a second. He doesn’t have to ask who she’s talking about. He knows that there is no point in lying to her either, she already knows the truth, has most probably known it since they first met her.
Relationships: Matthew Mercer/Marisha Ray
Comments: 2
Kudos: 65





	Fur and Feathers

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Own Nature](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21962488) by [breathtaken](https://archiveofourown.org/users/breathtaken/pseuds/breathtaken). 

> The usual RPF rules apply: Do not share this with anyone who does not want to see this, especially not the cast.
> 
> I loved Breathtaken's fic so much, I just had to try my own hand at a dæmon AU <3

When Lieci’s form settles into a small, white-flecked doe, Matt isn’t exactly surprised. Neither are his parents or his younger brother. Sure, a bird of some kind or a wildcat would have been neat but he’d always known that that kind of dæmon would not have fit him in the slightest.

That doesn’t mean that it is easy, especially in the beginning. Children can be exceptionally cruel, zeroing in on a weakness and exploiting it with pinpoint precision. Before, it had been his general appearance and clothes; a lanky teen with thick glasses, dressed mostly in second-hand pieces that his mother had managed to find at the local thrift store. Now they are the perceived shortcomings of Lieci’s settled form. A form which quite clearly projects certain traits of him that make him an easy target for the kind of schoolyard bullies that strut around with eagles perched on their shoulders or snakes curled around their arms, hissing as they walk past him. 

His mother tells him over and over again that he is gentle and honest and kind and that those are things worth protecting, even if others might not see it that way. At first, he’s not sure he believes her but when Lieci curls up in his lap or cuddles close to him after an awful day, he decides that there is truth to her words. He is sure then, that he wouldn’t change a single thing about Lieci.

A source of joy are the tabletop games he’s playing with his friends. He kind of slides into the gamemaster role for the most part and he can’t say that he minds. He gets to be so many different characters. He gets to be the dragon who taunts the heroes when they invade his lair and he gets to be the wise, old wizard who guides them on their quest. Many a night are spent practicing different voices while Lieci listens in rapt attention and offers suggestions on how to make a voice sound funnier or scarier.

***

His family moves a lot, first within Florida, then they uproot completely and drive across the country to start anew at the west coast. Friends change, bullies change and through it all, Lieci is faithfully at his side. So in a way, nothing at all changes.

***

He finishes school and stumbles through various jobs before dipping his toes into voice acting. It’s hard at first, not that he expected anything else. The thrill of being someone else for a short amount of time is freeing and it reminds him of the games of his childhood. Playing a grizzly, old tavernkeep or a washed-up mercenary; the principle is the same.

Miller becomes Mercer; a mix of necessity and a desire to leave old scars behind and have his own, personal, fresh start with a clean slate.

***

Through a side project, he is invited to the writers table for a small project a friend of his’ is trying to put together. He gets to the first meeting, Lieci curled up in his arms as he steps through the doorway. And there she is. 

Fiery red hair and a bright smile as she looks at the newcomers. He forgets to breathe for a second until he notices Lieci’s movements in his arms as she curiously lifts her head. He remembers himself and introduces himself with a sheepish smile, hoping that she didn’t notice anything.

Her name is Marisha. 

Over the course of the project, Matt discovers that she is an extraordinary well of creativity. Her passion is infectious and lights up her entire face when she’s talking about a new direction the project could take and Matt finds it hard to look anywhere but her in those moments. Sometimes she gets a bit too excited and dislodges her dæmon Thorin, a white and brown hawk, from her shoulder, who then flies up onto a tall piece of furniture with an indignant cry. He learns that she’s only arrived in L.A. recently, moving here from Kentucky with her boyfriend. Her ambition and drive is palpable; the small town girl willing to take a risk for a shot at achieving her dreams. She dabbles in much the same industries as Matt does, a bit of voice acting here, writing and development of short web series for a newly emerging online audience there.

***

“You like her a lot, don’t you?” Lieci asks late one evening. Matt looks up at his companion, stunned for a second. He doesn’t have to ask who she’s talking about. He knows that there is no point in lying to her either, she already knows the truth, has most probably known it since they first met her.

“I do.”

“So?” Lieci challenges. “What do you intend to do about it?”

“I don’t know, Li,” he sighs. “This feels like a long shot.”

“Why do you think that?”

“Li, her dæmon is a _hawk_,” he says like the answer is obvious. Like this is a difference to large to surmount. “Thorin could probably eat you, you know?” he adds, trying to go for lighthearted and missing it by a mile.

“This is _not_ how it works and you _know_ it,” Lieci huffs indignantly. “And you never noticed how she is looking at you when you aren’t looking.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like she likes you too.”

Matt looks at her, speechless for a moment before he sighs deeply, suddenly feeling very tired.

“It doesn’t matter anyway. She has a boyfriend.”

“But–”

“No, we’re done talking about this now,” he cuts her off. “I’m tired, let’s go to sleep.”

He gets up from his chair and starts to get ready for bed, Lieci following grudgingly along behind him.

When he settles into bed, Lieci doesn’t take up her usual place pressed to Matt’s side, instead curling up at the edge of the mattress. Matt sighs again before he speaks.

“Look, I’m sorry. But it’s complicated. You understand that, don’t you?”

She lifts her head a little to look at him in the dark, the moonlight just enough to see her silhouette and the reflection of the dim light in her eyes. “I understand it and you understand it, but that changes nothing about what you’re feeling, does is?”

“No, it doesn’t,” he answers quietly after a moment of silence.

Neither of them say anything else for long seconds as they look at each other. Then Lieci gets up and plops herself down next to Matt, curled into his side.

***

At one of his VO jobs, he gets asked if he knows someone who could fill a female role that they hadn’t been able to cast yet. After he’s been given a brief description of the role, Matt’s mind immediately lands on Marisha and so he gives her a referral. A few days later, she calls him excitedly, telling him that she got the job and invites him out for a drink to thank him. It is then that he realizes that they’ve never actually spent any time with just the two of them together. They’d always been working in a group with other people or had gone out with a few other friends and acquaintances. 

He doesn’t quite know why he’s so nervous about it. He tells himself that it’s just a drink, it’s not like it’s a date or anything and she has a boyfriend anyways so damnit, Matthew, just chill. It only kind of works.

***

Marisha has picked a small and quiet bar. When he gets there, she’s already sitting at a table in the corner, smiling at him when he enters. He greets her and slides next to her into a seat, Lieci hopping up on the seat next to him and looking curiously at the hawk who is perched on the back of a chair opposite her. They order their drinks and start chatting. The conversation is light and easy; talking about the last few projects they’ve been working on, the movies they were planning to see, a concert they’ve apparently both attended but hadn’t spotted each other at.

Time flies quickly, both of them getting a bit tipsy and laughing a bit louder than usual as the evening progresses and turns into night. Neither of them pay much attention to their dæmons. Matt notices Thorin hopping over to his side of the table at some point but doesn’t think anything of it.

Then, in the middle of a sentence, Marisha suddenly stills, staring at something behind Matt. He turns to look and freezes as well.

On the seat next to Matt are Lieci and Thorin. One wing of the hawk is folded protectively over the small doe, almost covering her form completely. Only her head is poking out from under layers of feathers but it is immediately clear that they are huddled close.

Matt had only ever seen Lieci cuddling with other dæmons, if their owners were exceptionally close to him. She had often slept curled around Celios, the red-tinged weasel of his ex-girlfriend. She occasionally cuddles up to Pan, the extraordinary albino peacock of his best friend Taliesin, though she is mostly just fascinated by his long tail feathers. 

Needless to say, to see her being this affectionate towards another dæmon was unexpected. And alarming.

Matt looks back at Marisha, uncertain how to react and seeing the same uncertainty reflected back at him.

“Thorin, this is...! Come over here,” Marisha blurts out finally, a blush rising on her face while she makes a helpless gesture.

“I’m very sorry,” she says to Matt, while Thorin hops towards her, visibly unhappy at having been disturbed. “I don’t know what’s gotten into him, he usually doesn’t do that.”

“Neither does Lieci,” Matt answers, hardly less flustered than her as he motions Lieci to him. 

After that, the conversation shifts quickly, neither of them willing to address the incident or its implications, while keeping a closer than normal eye on their respective dæmons. It feels to Matt like they’re both parents of small children, who need constant supervision on their playdate, lest one of them do something dangerous.

They’re still having a good time but the mood is less relaxed and there’s a palpable uncertainty between them now.

***

“Li, what were you doing?” Matt asks when they are back home.

“Nudging you along,” she says simply. 

“Was that the goal? ‘Cause I don’t think you managed to achieve it,” he answers dryly.

“Obviously. You’re both too useless for that.”

“Li!”

“Fine,” she huffs before admitting, “I guess, I might have been a bit too forward.”

“You _guess,_ you _might _have been?” Matt repeats incredulously. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she doesn’t want to see me again after that.”

“Now don’t be dramatic. It’ll be fine,” she says confidently.

“I don’t want to lose a friend because you had to go and make it weird.”

I’m sorry. But it felt like the right thing to do. This whole evening felt _right_. Don’t pretend that it didn’t.”

Matt sighs in defeat before he speaks softly, “I know, Li.” 

***

He doesn’t hear anything from Marisha for close to two weeks. He starts to get worried that the incident with Lieci and Thorin might really have alienated her so much as to avoid him. He’s close to texting her a few times but he somehow never manages to go through with it.

Then she calls him.

He sees her name appear on the screen and almost drops his phone. It takes a few seconds for him to compose himself enough to tap the green button and accept the call.

The first thing he notices when she greets him is that she sounds nervous. She asks him how he’s been. They talk for a few minutes about nothing in particular until...

“I… I broke up with my boyfriend,” she blurts out suddenly.

Matt is taken aback for a moment, only managing a soundless ‘_oh_’.

“It’s been... rough the past few months. Since we moved to L.A., basically,” she continues. “Maybe he hadn’t thought that I’d throw myself into work as much as I’ve done, maybe it was something else. Point is, he couldn’t really cope with the change and it was wearing on our relationship.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Matt says finally, only half a lie. “This place can do this to a relationship.”

He hears a quiet, mirthless laugh and a hum of agreement from her end of the line.

“So... “ she begins again after several moments where neither of them speak. “Would you like to go out for another drink at some point?”

His heart is aflutter in his chest when he answers. 

“Yes. I’d like that a lot.” 

***

He’d never been one to get into relationships easily, always feeling like things were progressing too fast and more than once backing out completely because he suddenly felt unsure. With Marisha it’s different.

Lieci had been right. This feels _right_ in a way other relationships before hadn’t. They are uniquely different in their personalities, Matt always more careful and deliberate, afraid to step on someone’s toes, while Marisha is willing to take more risks and keeps pushing ahead with confidence and determination. But despite – or maybe because of – their differences, they make it work with ease. They complement each other in a way that helps both of them grow in their careers and their relationship.

Lieci is a little smug when they first get together, clearly attributing it to her and Thorin’s little stunt and Matt is careful to explicitly agree with her, lest he encourage her even more to take matters into her own… hooves. But he can’t help but feel grateful nevertheless.

***

One day, Marisha is sitting on the couch, notebook on her lap and deeply absorbed in a script she is writing, when Lieci jumps up on the sofa and cuddles up to her. When Marisha absentmindedly starts stroking through her short, soft fur, it takes Matt’s soft gasp of surprise to make her realize what she’s doing. Marisha jolts back wide eyed, while Lieci calmly sits down next to her and looks up at her.

“Oh God, I’m so sorry,” she apologizes immediately to Matt, as she puts the notebook to the side, horrified at herself. “I wasn’t paying attention.”

Matt takes a deep breath to steady himself before he answers.

“Don’t be. Li was probably being her cheeky self again,” he says, looking at Lieci who was still gazing at Marisha with innocent doe eyes. He moves to sit next to her on the sofa, Lieci between them, and strokes his own hand down his dæmon’s back. He shifts his eyes to Marisha’s face, the regret still evident on her face. He slowly takes her hand and guides it back towards Lieci’s head. 

At the first connection of her fingertips to soft fur, a light shudder goes through Matt and he sighs softly as he feels her touch brushing against his soul and a wave of warmth courses through his whole body. Marisha just rests her hand on top of Lieci’s head for a few seconds, staring at Matt in wonder. Then she begins to carefully and slowly stroke down her back as Matt had done before. Matt’s eyes slide closed at that and Lieci slowly lets her head sink into Marisha’s lap. 

They stay like that for long moments until Matt hears the soft flutter of wings and opens his eyes to see Thorin perched on the screen of Marisha’s notebook. Matt exchanges a glance with Marisha and then extends a hand towards Thorin. The hawk hops onto his arm without a second's hesitation. He slowly strokes his fingers down the soft feathers that cover the head of the elegant bird and hears Marisha’s soft gasp, before she shifts closer to Matt and leans her head against his shoulder. Matt looks at Lieci again and sees that her entire form is now curled up in Marisha’s lap. 

She lifts her head a little as she notices his gaze on her and looks back at him, her eyes sparkling with satisfaction and joy. He smiles at her in return before he turns his head to place a kiss on top of Marisha’s head.


End file.
